


Adventures In Normal

by Sunnecline13



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:32:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8355409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunnecline13/pseuds/Sunnecline13
Summary: A series of Stranger Things one shots. Will mostly be Mileven in nature.***Update: El has to deal with some terrible news regarding her birth mother, and Mike is officially the sweetest boyfriend in the world.***





	1. Alone

     She woke up in The Upsidedown, at least she thought it was The Upsidedown. It was far different from what she had grown used to seeing. Instead of empty blackness, this world was a lot like the one she had left behind, and yet so very different. It was dark and cold, and the air itself seemed to cling to her dress, hair, and skin, slowly soaking her. She was in Hawkins Middle School, but strange fungus-like vines seemed to be growing on every surface, and the air was clogged with strange flakes that made her lungs burn like acrid smoke.

     She was tired. Far more tired than she had ever been in her life. She wasn’t sure if the Demogorgon was dead, and she wasn’t sure where Mike or the other boys were, but she was far too weak to move. She wanted to stay awake, needed to, in case the monster returned, but her eyes were like lead weights. Without even the energy to whimper, she fell into oblivion.

     When Eleven’s eyes fluttered open, there was nothing to mark the passage of time. She might have been asleep for minutes or months. She tried to sit up, but her head pounded, her muscles ached, and her lungs felt as though they were being squeezed in a vice. She abandoned her efforts and watched the strange flakes drift through the air. Her eyes were beginning to feel heavy again, and this time, she didn’t fight it.

     When she was awake, El guessed that time was passing, although there was no way to prove it. There was no day here, only the cold, damp, lonely darkness. In the beginning, she spent most of her time in a heavy sleep, as a deep exhaustion seemed to have settled into her bones. She passed her waking hours by trying to recall everything she possibly could. She remembered the way the blankets in Mike’s basement seemed to cradle her in warmth. She remembered the familiar blandness of the oatmeal she was given for breakfast each morning at the lab. She thought about her time spent in “school” when she was much younger. How Papa would patiently go through each letter, each sound with her. She thought of the stack of books she had been assigned to read each month. Books on meditation, mind control, and manipulation. Books on weather, physics, physiology, and every other sort of science.

     She thought about Papa. The quiet of his voice, and the cool gentleness of his touch. Always so kind on the surface. Always so patient. But El knew better now. She knew Mike, and Dustin, and even Lucas. She now knew what true kindness looked like, how true goodness behaved.

     She pictured each of their faces in turn, their memory feeding her survival for another minute, another hour. She pictured Dustin’s curly hair and easy jokes. The way his eyes seemed to crinkle up and disappear every time he smiled. She thought of Lucas’ fierce loyalty and unwavering dedication. The way he had fussed over her after her kiddie-pool bath, and the remorse on his face when he apologized. It had been so hard to earn his friendship, and yet El was sure that it would now always be hers.

     And then, of course, there was Mike. She always took her time with Mike, digging into her memory to recall every detail of their week together. The way he had looked with rain pouring over him the first time they met. His hood pulled over his dark hair, and his full lips slightly parted. She remembered how he had pulled off his own jacket and draped it over her. She recalled the gentle way he had spoken, so patient. Always understanding. The nest of blankets he had set up, just for her. The way he had assured her that she was still pretty, even covered in grime and without the golden wig. She remembered how, even in the face of his best friend’s suspicions, he had always believed the best of her. She hadn’t known many people in her life, just Papa, and the people who hooked her up to the various machines that measured everything from her brainwaves to her pulse, but El knew immediately that Mike was different. He didn’t just play at being kind and gentle. He was kind and gentle. Her world had been all sterile walls, cold floors, and dark ultimatums. To them, she had been nothing more than a weapon to be developed and controlled. Then she had run away into the cold, rainy night, and stumbled into the first true warmth she had ever known. _I’m Mike; short for Michael…Maybe we can call you El, short for Eleven?_

     She knew she was slowly getting stronger, because silent tears were sliding from her eyes and streaming into her hair, where before she had been too weak to cry. She continued to sift through the images she had in her head of Mike’s face, and settled on the small smile he had given her after he had determinedly pressed his lips to her’s. She held onto the mental picture like a life preserver as she once again slipped into unconsciousness.


	2. Preparations and Second Chances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hopper reflects back on his preparations for El, and enlists the help of Joyce and Karen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mileven is coming soon, I promise! (:

March, 1985

     Hopper stood and stretched, his muscles aching from sitting for so long. He quietly made his way around the house, switching off lights, and making sure that all doors and windows were locked for the night. He still wasn’t completely used to his new house and the comforts that came with it, but he was thankful that the kid had a nice place to call home.

     Thinking of her, Hopper made his way down the short hall and quietly pushed her door open. She lay, sleeping peacefully, on her bed, her face bathed in the soft, yellow glow of her nightlight. It had been over a year since she had escaped The Upsidedown, and yet the dark still scared her senseless.

     Satisfied that El was comfortable and safe, Hopper eased her door closed and made his way to his room, where he fell heavily onto his bed. It still amazed him that his life had changed so much in so short amount of time.

     “You’re a natural,” Joyce had complimented him just a month after El had come out of hiding. They had been over at the Byer home for dinner, as they were most nights, and he had done nothing more than oversee Joyce prepare El’s cheeseburger. “Oh, she doesn’t like onion,” he said, pulling the offending piece off of her burger. “And no mayo, but extra ketchup. Thanks Joyce.” Joyce had watched Eleven gobble up her food, before turning to Hopper with a brilliant smile.

     “You’re a natural. She seems happy,” she said softly. El and Will were finishing up their dinner, sitting side by side on the couch as Mama’s Family played on the TV.

     “Well I hope she is,” Hopper had responded. “The kid deserves a little bit of happiness after everything she’s been through.”

     Joyce had lit a cigarette and brought it to her lips, studying Hopper closely. “It still has to be a big adjustment though, huh? Going for being a swingin’ bachelor to single dad?”

     Hopper sighed as an image of Sarah burst into his mind. “I liked being a dad,” he said quietly. 

     Joyce had squeezed his hand warmly. “Well I’m glad you get another shot at it.”

     Lying on his bed, Hopper thought once again of Sarah, her memory no longer a specter that haunted him. He had thought that she had been his only shot at any kind of happiness and family, and had resigned himself to a life of solitude, booze, and the occasional one-night-stand. Then Will Byers had gone missing and turned his world completely upside down.

     Again.

     Yet from all the stress, confusion, and straight-up terror, a new normal had impossibly emerged. A normal in which alternate dimensions and monsters existed, but so did second chances.

     For a brief time he wondered if he was trying to replace Sarah with El, but that fear quickly fell away. They were like food and water: Both necessary, but not interchangeable. So he had worked the deal with Josephine Baker, Brenner’s replacement, he had accepted the new house that had sprung up where his old one had stood, and had painted one of the bedrooms lavender. He and Joyce had traveled to Indianapolis where he bought white, feminine bedroom furniture, along with new couches and a kitchen table. Then, he had brought El out from the cabin deep in woods, and watched with a warm satisfaction as her eyes went wide in wonder.

     “Pretty,” she had whispered, lightly tracing her fingers over the new, white furniture in her bedroom. “Mine?” she asked in awe.

     Hopper had cleared his throat. “That’s right, Kid. This is, uh, your bedroom now. And this is your house. Ok?” She had simply smiled at him sweetly and nodded, and for the first time in years, Hopper felt completely at peace.

 

* * *

 

 

November 1984

 

     Karen Wheeler rolled her glass of wine between her hands, not sure what to make of what she was being told. Just a year ago suits from the federal government had invaded her home, confiscated her son’s games and various belongings, and claimed that a little girl with a shaved head was putting him in mortal peril. Now, Jim Hopper, the Chief of Police, and Joyce Byers, the mother of her son’s best friend, and a woman she had known most of her life, were both telling her a completely different story.

     “This…this is all _really_ hard to believe,” she laughed without humor. “You’re telling me that they kept this…this little girl locked in a lab…like some sort of prisoner?”

     The Chief’s face remained deadly serious as he nodded his head. “That’s exactly what we’re telling you.”

     “And they kept her locked up because…because she has powers?”

     “That’s right,” The Chief nodded again.

     Karen turned to Joyce. “And Will…when he went missing?”

     “Karen, I know how this sounds,” Joyce said, taking her head. “I know how completely and utterly insane we must seem, but it’s all true. Eleven,” Joyce pushed the little girl’s picture over so that it rested in front of her old friend’s eyes. “She saved Will, and she saved Mike, Lucas, and Dustin too. The world is so much bigger and more complicated than we ever imagined, and it’s completely unbelievable, but it’s _all_ true. And now El, the girl who saved our boys, needs our help. That’s why we’re here. We _have_ to help her.”

     Karen nodded and opened her mouth to respond, but found she didn’t know what to say. Instead, she picked up her glass of merlot and downed it in one long drink. Still, another moment passed before she was able to speak.

     “Ok. What kind of help does she need? Is the government still after her? Where has she been this whole time?”

     “I can’t tell you all the details,” Hopper said, his voice holding just a hint of apology. “But I can tell you that after she saved Mike and the boys, she went back to that other place…the Upsidedown. It took her a while to get out, and when she did…” he shook his head, his face looking grim. “Let’s just say she wasn’t in good shape when I found her. Of course the feds from the lab still wanted her back. They invested too much time and energy into her to just let her go.” He pushed himself to his feet and began to pace Joyce’s small kitchen while lighting up a cigarette. “I got a small place, deep in the woods. An old hunting cabin my grandfather built. I kept her there while I worked on a deal. It wasn’t easy, and it only worked because Brenner met an untimely end.”

     “Was that the man that came to my house?” Karen asked breathlessly. “What happened?”

     Hopper took a long drag from his cigarette. “The story is that he blew a tire on the interstate and died in the wreck. Me? I think he screwed up one too many times and the-powers-that-be had enough.”

     “Screwed up?” Karen asked, feeling as though she had slipped into one of the soap operas she refused to watch.

     “Let Eleven escape, opened a gate to another dimension, faked a kid’s death only to be discovered, allowed a real-life monster loose into the world. Take your pick. Whatever the case, he’s dead now, and his replacement seems a whole lot more reasonable. She’s the one who struck the deal with me. Which is where you come in.”

     “Ok,” Karen nodded. It was easier to focus on practical things rather than the dizzying images of monsters and alternate dimensions. “How do I figure into all this?”

     “Eleven is going to live with me,” Hopper explained, taking another drag from his cigarette. “The government’s given me a new house that’s… _fit_ for a kid, and they’re also going to give me a monthly allowance to go towards El’s care, so that’s all covered. What I’ll need from you will be more in the category of support.”

     “Support?” Karen asked.

     “She’s never been around other people,” Joyce explained. “She’s never been to school, or the supermarket, a movie theater, nothing. Before our boys, she’d never even talked to other children.”

     “My God,” Karen whispered, wishing she had more wine.

     “She’s smart though,” Hopper assured her with something like pride in his voice. “She can read and write, and knows more than I do about Science and Math. But…”

     “But?”

     “She doesn’t know shit in other areas,” Hopper explained. “She doesn’t know how to tell time or count money, and she couldn’t tell you who Abraham Lincoln is to save her life. She doesn’t know anything about TV, or records, or roller skates, or really anything a kid ought to know. And…”

     “And what?” Karen asked, wondering what else there could possibly be.

     “She needs help with speaking,” Hopper said, dropping back into his chair.

     “Speaking?”

     He nodded and snuffed out his cigarette. “Like I said, the girl is smart, can read anything you put in front of her, but she doesn’t talk much. She knows _how_ to, but it’s like she gets, I don’t know, confused?”

     “Overwhelmed,” Joyce supplied knowingly. “It’s like there’s a short circuit between her brain and her mouth.”

     “She just needs practice,” Hopper assured her, a hard edge to his voice. “She never had anyone to talk to in that damn place! She was just a lab rat to them.”

     The more he spoke the more Karen was able to hear the anger in his voice. _This is personal for him_ , she realized.

     “She needs someone to work with her. Get her out into the world and teach her the basic things she’s never learned,” Joyce took over. “I would do it, but I still have to work. And Hopper…”

     “He’s still Chief of Police,” Karen said. “But I’m home, so…”

     “Exactly,” Joyce nodded. “You’re home, and you’d be able to help her learn. But it’s more than that.”

     “What is it, then?” Karen asked, once again confused.

     “It’s Mike,” Joyce said, smiling gently. “He and El have…I don’t know, a connection?”

     “A connection? Mike isn’t even fourteen,” Karen laughed.

     “I’m not saying that it’s specifically romantic,” Joyce assured her. “But they have a…a bond. She feels safe around him, and I know he cares about her. I think spending time together will make her feel more comfortable in her new world.”

    “A lot has changed really quickly for El,” Hopper said, his voice once again somber. “And this is a kid who’s never had it easy. We’re just trying to change that. She deserves whatever childhood she has left.”

     Karen gazed at the picture of the young girl in front of her. Her hair had grown out some, and her face had lost much of its roundness, but otherwise she looked just like she remembered from her other picture. There in her large, doe-like eyes was a sadness and vulnerability that the mother in Karen couldn’t ignore.

     “Ok,” she nodded. “I’ll help. Eleven can stay with me during the day, and I’ll do my best to teach her what she needs to know.”

     Hopper looked relieved. “Thank you,” he said with feeling.

     Joyce grabbed up Karen’s hand once again and smiled at her bracingly. “Now all we have to do is tell the boys.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always appreciate feedback and ideas! (:


	3. Late Night Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike and El talk until the sun comes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not all that great at fluff, but we definitely needed some Mike and El time.

June 1985

 

     They’re fourteen and Eleven has been back for seven months when she finally tells Mike everything.   Their Freshmen year is quickly approaching, and they all gather at El’s (which has practically also become Will’s) for a beginning-of-summer sleepover. They build a bonfire in the back overlooking the lake, where they roast hotdogs and make s’mores. After they’ve eaten far more than they should, they decide to play Manhunt in the dark, and for over an hour the quiet woods are filled with their happy shrieking.

     They call it quits when Dustin twists his ankle (it’s a minor sprain, though he acts as though he’s broken it), and head inside to change into their pajamas and watch The Outsiders. When that’s over they play Truth or Dare. Things start off relatively easy.

     “Mike, I dare you to smell Dustin’s foot.”

     “Lucas, I dare you to eat a can of Hopper’s anchovies!”

     “Max, I dare you to call Jason Hawley and tell him you love him!”

     El, seeing the disgusting or silly things her friends have had to do, makes the rookie mistake of picking ‘truth’.

     Dustin and Lucas exchange a look that is nearly sinister, while Will and Max shake their heads in pity. Mike holds his breath.

     “El Yves,” Dustin begins, his smile far too sweet to be trustworthy. “We saw you talking to Nathan Crosby yesterday outside of Woolworth’s. He seemed friendly. _Very_ friendly. So that got us wondering: who do you have a crush on?”

     “Remember,” Lucas chimes in. “You _have_ to tell the truth.”

     El opens her mouth several times, but no sound comes out. They have her trapped, and from the look on their faces, they seem to know it. She has a crush on Mike, of course, and she’s certain they’re both aware of this fact. Still, they’re determined to make her say it, which doesn’t seem fair, considering she hasn’t even told Mike. Not in words, anyway.

     “Guys, this game is stupid,” Mike says, attempting to save her.

     “Mike’s right,” Will agrees kindly. “Aren’t we too old for this now?”

     “Fine,” Dustin agrees. “We’ll stop. As soon as El answers the question. Fair is fair.”

     “He has a point,” Max shrugs. “I had to call that moron Jason Hawley!”

     El bites her lip and then takes a deep breath. She’s grown quite used to their playful teasing, but at times she’s still not sure how to respond. “Fine,” she says softly, which is still the way she speaks the vast majority of the time. “I crush someone…but don’t make fun of me. Ok?”

     Lucas struggles to make his face neutral and nods, while Mike unconsciously leans forward, waiting to hear who El will name.

     “I crush on…Rob Lowe.” She smiles angelically at Dustin and Lucas, as Will gives her a high five and Mike lets out a laugh that sounds almost relieved.

     “Alright Weirdo, you win that round,” Lucas says, the one-time insult now laced with affection.

     They stay up for several more hours eating junk food and playing Speed and then Uno, until their arguing about when you can throw a Draw-Four Card wakes Joyce and she shoos them to bed.

     Eleven and Max attempt to lie down on the floor with the boys, but Joyce shakes her head.

     “You’re all too old for co-ed sleepovers,” she says firmly. “It’s not… appropriate.”

     The two girls look at each other regretfully and shrug, knowing that Joyce has a point. So after bidding the boys goodnight, they retire to El’s room where they both cuddle up on her bed and fall asleep almost immediately.

     El cries out at the same time she sits up, her heart hammering away inside her chest. It takes her brain a moment to comprehend that she’s sitting in her darkened room, in her new house, with her still-kinda-new friend.

 

      The dream had been so very real. One of Papa’s cold hands had been holding her face, forcing her to look at him, while the other had encircled her wrist in a light but possessive grip.

     “Don’t you want to make your Papa happy?” he had asked, his voice warm and persuasive, but his focused and determined. “Do it, Eleven. Do it _now_.”

     His grip became tighter as his carefully maintained calm began to crumble.

     She shook her head, the tears already beginning to course down her face.

     “You will go in that room, and do as you’ve been instructed.”

     “No,” she whimpered. “Please.”

     Papa stared at her for a long moment, before the fight seemed to go out of him. “I didn’t want to have to do this Eleven…”

     And then she was being dragged away. She fought with all of her strength against the arms holding her. She kicked, and thrashed, and even spit, but she was only a small teenage girl, and they were so much larger.

     She was thrown unceremoniously into the dark cell, her knees making painful contact with the cold tile. Before she can even get to her feet, the door was slammed shut, and it was just her and the infinite, crushing darkness.

 

     She knows that she’s never going to be able to fall asleep, so she wraps the pale purple and yellow afghan that decorates her bed around her shoulders and slips out of her room, careful not to disturb Max. She tiptoes over the sleeping figures of the boys, eases the sliding-glass door open, and slips outside.

     It’s early June and the night air is crisp and clear. The full moon reflects a steady path of light on the lake as the water laps gently at the shore. Although El loves her new home any time of day, it’s at night that she most appreciates why Hopper was so adamant about building it where his trailer once stood. It’s beautiful in a way that makes her think of the many fairy tales she’s read since escaping the Upside Down.

     She sits down next to the dying embers of their bonfire, and gazes at the stars, trying not to think about her dream. Instead, she thinks about how much her life has improved in the last two years. From living in Mike’s basement, to living in the secret cabin, to having her own room, in her own house, with her very own Hopper.

     Most days she’s so happy that she doesn’t want to go to sleep at night, and her face almost aches from smiling. But always there, lurking at the back of her mind, are all of the memories of the dark days in the lab, where her days were bookended by fear and dread.

     A stick cracks behind her, and she jumps to her feet, her mind reacting without conscious deliberation. The figure in front of her flies back ten feet and lands heavily in a prone position.

     “It’s me! It’s just me!” A familiar voice wheezes from the darkness.

     “Mike!” She gasps, rushing forward to check on him. She falls to her knees at his side. “I’m s-sorry!”

     He grimaces a little, and then laughs. “It’s ok. I’m sorry I scared you.”

     “You’re bleeding,” she says, horrified, motioning at his lip where a smear of blood has appeared. She can feel hot tears beginning to build behind her eyes.

     Mike touches his lip gingerly and shrugs. “I bit my lip a little when I landed. I’m fine. Really.”

     “I hurt you,” she whispers shamefully, and then, to her horror, she starts to cry.

     “El? El, no! Don’t cry!”

     He grips her shoulders gently, reassuring her over and over again, but she continues crying. She covers her face with her hands in shame, wishing she had just stayed in bed.

     Mike grabs her wrists and pulls her to him uncertainly. She hides her face in the front of his t-shirt, and feels him wrap her in a hug. Everything about him feels a little tense and awkward, but he doesn’t pull away, and his nearness calms her.

     Several minutes pass before her tears stop and she hiccups herself into silence. She stares down at her knees, too embarrassed to look up. His arms are still wrapped loosely around her shoulders, his hands patting her back clumsily.

     “Better?” He asks.

     She nods, and after only a moment of hesitation, his arms fall away.

     “God, I’m sorry,” he says again. “I should have just stayed inside, but I saw you go out and I wanted to make sure you were ok. I feel like an asshole.”

     That gets a smile out of her because Mike rarely swears. “I just…I can’t control it sometimes,” she admits quietly. “Not…not really.”

     “No?” he asks.

     El shakes her head.

     He stands then and offers her a hand up. “Let’s get out of the dirt,” he says.

     He pulls her by the hand and leads her back to the chair she had been occupying, her soft afghan puddled on the seat.

     “It seems like you’ve been doing well,” he notes when they’re both seated. “You haven’t lost control like that since the junkyard.”

     El nods, and looks down at her hands. “Everything’s been so…good,” she says, her voice still thick with recent tears. “It’s almost like I’m normal most of the time…but then I do something like that.”

     “El,” Mike sighs. “Normal is boring. You’re way better than normal.”

     “I could have hurt you,” she says, fresh tears streaking silently from her eyes.

     “But you didn’t. And now I know not to sneak up on you. You’re doing really well.”

     “Promise?” she whispers, looking at him from under her teary lashes.

     “Promise,” he says, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

     “I had a dream,” she confesses, drawing her knees up to her chest.

     “Is that why you came out here?” he asks gently, and she nods. “Oh. I thought maybe you wanted to wish on a star for Rob Lowe.”

     He smirks and bumps her shoulder with his. She can’t help but smile in response, but her dream weighs heavily on her mind and the mirth quickly passes.

     “Do you want to talk about it?” Mike asks. “It might help.”

     El is silent for a moment, considering. She has never told anyone the details of her life before escaping the lab. Joyce and Hopper have a rough idea from the pieces they’ve managed to put together, but El’s never confided in them. She secretly hoped that if she didn’t talk about it, the memories would fade away to nothing.

     She looks over at Mike, and he’s studying her intently, his face a picture of concern. She allows her eyes to travel over his face, over all of the familiar features she’s come to associate with warmth and safety, and she remembers the first full day they spent together. He had encouraged her to sit in his Dad’s chair, and then knelt beside her.

_Just trust me ok?_

    And she had. She trusted him then, and she trusted him now.

     “It was about Papa,” she begins, her voice little more than a whisper. And she tells him. She tells him about the dream, and then about her time in the lab. She tells him about Papa’s warm smile and cold eyes, about her hours in the dark cell, isolated and afraid. She tells him about the small kindnesses and gifts that always came with strings attached. She tells him about the loneliness, the endless tests, the needles, and the countless experiments. She tells him about Papa’s orders to kill the cat, and her punishment for refusing. Through renewed tears she tells him about the orderlies, one of whom she killed, and how she had been perversely rewarded for it. She tells him about the terror of being forced to confront the Demogorgon. She tries to explain how small and alone she had felt in that dark place with that monster, her terror almost suffocating. She explains to him about her desperate escape, and finding Benny, so good and kind, then watching him die. She tells him about the men with guns, and how she had hurt them in her bid to get away. She tells him about being terrified in the dark woods, before stumbling straight into her first ever friends. She tells him all about what she thought of him during that first week…she allows him to see himself through her eyes: Kind. Good. Warm. Brave. Patient. Smart. Friend. Mike.

     She does her best to explain to him about how incredibly painful it was to destroy the Demogorgon, how lonely she had been in the Upside Down, how she had been sure that she would never escape.

     She talks more than she ever has in her life. She talks until her voice is raw and aching, but she keeps going. And it’s as if the poison of her past life is slowly being drawn from her heart. She feels lighter, and freer then she’s ever felt. A big part of her had been scared to confess everything to Mike, scared of revealing too much and driving him away, but sometime during the dark night he took her hand, and he hasn’t released it.

     “And now I have Hop, and a home, and most of the time I’m happy, but…”

     She trails off because although she can read advanced scientific textbooks without batting an eye, years and years of near-perpetual silence have made speech difficult for her, and she still often finds herself floundering for the right words. She needn’t worry though. When she looks at Mike, his eyes are full of understanding.

     “It’s still with you,” he finishes for her. “That place. It shows up in your nightmares.” She nods. “I have them too.” He confides, running his thumb across her knuckles. And then he’s telling _her_ everything. Whispering in the dark about watching her explode into ash with the Demogorgon, about the longs months of searching for her, the worried glances from his mother and teachers, the overwhelming guilt, and the sleepless nights.

     “I should have saved you,” he sighs, holding his head in his hands and pulling at his hair miserably.

     “You _did_ , Mike,” she insists, wishing she could think of all the right words to tell him how much.

     She’s shivering but doesn’t realize it until he squeezes into the seat next to her, and pulls her purple afghan over both of their shoulders. The eastern sky is just beginning to glow pink, and the world around them looks brand new in the pale-blue light of predawn.

     “The sun’s coming up,” Mike observes around a yawn. El sighs and drops her head onto his shoulder, feeling suddenly warm in spite of the early morning chill. They sit in comfortable silence, watching as, moment by moment, the sky grows brighter.

     “Mike?” She says, her heart racing once more, but in a completely different way. Her head still rests on his shoulder, and knowing that he doesn’t have a clear view of her bolsters her courage.

     “Yeah?” His voice sounds thick, as though he were on the verge of sleep.

     “I lied earlier,” she says, forcing the words out.

     “Hmm?”

     “When we were playing Truth and Dare.”

     “You lied?” he asks, sitting a little straighter.

     El nods, and she knows she’s blushing already. “Yes. I…I don’t really crush Rob Lowe.”

     “No?” he asks, finding the misuse of the phrase incredibly endearing.

     She shakes her head against his shoulder.

     “Then…then who…?” Mike can’t seem to form the question, but El understands. Heart fluttering away, she pulls back from his shoulder, and her eyes meet his.

     “You know.”

     He holds her gaze for a moment that feels like forever, then closes the space between them and gently presses his lips to hers. This kiss is longer than their first, a little more confident, and El can’t help but wonder how something could feel so exciting, and yet so familiar all at once.

     She’s not sure who ends the kiss, but she is sure that something between them has permanently shifted, although she can’t name how. He’s blushing, and she knows that she is too, but it doesn’t matter.

     “El?” He says, breaking the comfortable silence.

     “Yes Mike?”

     “When you have nightmares just use the SuperCom and call me, ok? I don’t care what time it is, just…just call me.”

     “Ok,” she agrees. A moment passes, then Mike wraps his arm around her shoulders shyly, and she burrows into his side, the afghan still wrapped around them both, and in that moment she can’t imagine that she’ll ever have another nightmare again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know your thoughts and ideas!


	4. Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike takes El out for the first time since getting his license and they have a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long, but man life has been busy! I have some chapters that I've written over the last few months that need a bit of editing, but those should be up soon as well. As always, thank you to all who take the time to read this!

March 1987

 

     Mike drummed his thumb against the steering wheel and checked the time once again. 10:40 glowed from his watch.

     Twenty minutes. He had just twenty minutes to get El halfway across town, and back inside her home or Chief Hopper would, in his own words, “have his ass”.

     “Mike?” El asked, noticing the shift in his energy. Just moments earlier they had been laughing and joking about Dustin trying out for their high school’s track team in a desperate attempt to talk to Julie McGivin, for whom he had been harboring a major crush.

     “Sorry,” Mike said, shaking his head as though to clear it. “I…I’m just worried that we’re not going to make it in time,” he said, gesturing to the clock built into the dash of his Honda. “Hop’s gonna kill me.”

     El laughed through her nose and squeezed his hand reassuringly. “I won’t let him.”

     Mike smiled weakly, not entirely comforted. Up to this point, the night had gone just as he had planned it. He had arrived at El’s house at six o’clock sharp, and had spent an awkward fifteen minutes squished between Hopper and Will on the couch as El finished getting ready.

     While Will had been his normal, easy going self, Hopper had been more taciturn and gruff than usual. Mike didn’t get it. It wasn’t as though he and El were anything new. They had been inseparable from the moment she had returned nearly three years ago.

     “When did you get your license again?” Hopper asked, cutting off Will who had been in the middle of describing the new computers at the public library.

     “Last Monday,” Mike had answered, feel inexplicably nervous.

     “It’s supposed to storm tonight. You sure you can handle driving in the rain?”

     Mike had nodded. “Yes sir. I had some practice when I still had my permit.”

     Hopper had only grunted in reply.

     “Ok, Wheeler,” Max said, appearing suddenly in the hall, and saving Mike from further interrogation. “I want you to know that I put a lot of effort into El’s makeup. _Me. I did makeup_ ,” she emphasized. “So no messing it up sucking face, ok?”

     Mike’s face went so hot he was sure he must be glowing, and he found himself choking, rather loudly, on his own tongue. _Really? In front of The Chief?!_ He wanted to shout at her. Instead, he gave her a look that could have curdled milk, but she only shrugged and perched herself on the arm of the couch next to Will, smiling wickedly.

     “Sorry I took so long,” El said, trailing Max into the room and smiling shyly. Looking at her, all thoughts of the many ways the Chief might kill him were driven from his mind. She wore simple jeans with a navy blue sweater that draped stylishly off of one shoulder, revealing a modest expanse of smooth, fair skin that Mike didn’t dare openly admire. Her chestnut hair fell in a glossy sheet down her back, and he had to resist the urge to reach out and touch it. While all the girls their age seemed to be perming and teasing their hair to within an inch of its life, El’s hair had become something of her signature feature: Thick, ridiculously shiny, and falling in gentle waves half way down her back.

     “Hey El,” he said, his voice sounding odd to his own ears. “You look…wow,” he added softly, The Chief be damned.

     “Thank you,” she said shyly, her cheeks turning pink. “Ready to go?”

     “Yes,” he nodded, forgetting there was anyone else in the room and taking her hand.

     “Hang on,” Hopper’s commanding voice had sent him tumbling back to reality. “Ellie, you’re to be back here by eleven,” he had said sternly.

     “Ok Hop,” she had agreed quietly.

     “You hear that Wheeler?” Hopper had said, pinning him down with his most intimidating glare. “Eleven, _sharp_ , or I’ll have your ass.”

 

     “Oh wow.”

     El’s breathless voice jolted him back to the present. A bolt of lightning forked across the inky sky, with a crack of thunder following just moments later.

     “Hopper said it might storm,” Mike said bracingly, moving his hand to her knee and squeezing gently. As if to confirm his words, the skies suddenly opened up and rain began to pour down in torrents.

     “Shit,” he muttered, putting both hands on the steering wheel, and leaning forward to peer through the windshield.

     “Maybe we should pull over?” El suggested, her face pale as another volley of lightning and thunder shook the small car.

     “It’s ok, El,” Mike said, giving her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’ve driven in a storm before.”

      She only bit her lip and nodded in response. Mike continued on at a steady pace, desperate to get El home in time. It wasn’t that he really thought Hopper would hurt him…at least it wasn’t entirely that. It was more that this was the first time Mike had been able to take El out completely on his own, and he didn’t want to give Hopper any reason to not let him repeat the experience.

     “Almost there, now,” he said reassuringly as he turned onto her street. He noticed that El was still gripping her seat nervously, and that her face hadn’t regained any of its previous color. “You ok, El?”

    “I…storms…always remind of _that_ night,” she said weakly.

    “The night we met?” He asked, feeling slightly hurt. One of the reasons that he loved storms was because they reminded him of that night.

     El nodded, managing a sad smile. “That was the night…Benny….”

     She still struggled with forming coherent sentences when she was upset, but Mike understood. He remembered the first time they had talked until the sun came up, and how she had shared with him the events of her traumatic night at the diner when she watched Benny, her first friend, be murdered.

    “El,” he had murmured, lacing their fingers together and bringing her hand to his mouth, kissing it gently. “I’m sorry.”

    “Thanks Mike,” she whispered, her face finally holding a trace of pink in the dim light of the car. Her eyes seemed to sparkle with an unnamed light, and he couldn’t help but notice how soft her full lips looked.

    “You’re so pretty,” he blurted artlessly, wanting to immediately smack himself. _Smooth, Wheeler._

    “Mike,” El scolded, although her cheeks were now flushed bright red, and her smile was glowing.

     Mike was so caught up in watching El that he forgot all about how the road transitioned suddenly from paved to dirt, until suddenly the small sedan was fishtailing wildly in the mud.

    “Whoa!” he yelped, pumping the breaks. “Stop. Stop. STOP!”

     With a final slam of his foot the car came to a jolting halt, and both teenagers were left breathless and shaken.

     “Sorry,” Mike muttered after several moments of shocked silence. “I forgot about the dirt road.”

     El shook her head. “Mike, you kept us from crashing. It’s ok.”

     “Let’s just get you home,” he said, easing off the brake and pressing very gently on the gas. Although the engine revved in response, the car didn’t move. Mike pressed harder, and still the car would not move. He applied a bit more pressure, and suddenly the problem became obvious. The storm had turned the dirt road into flowing mud, and with no solid road to grip, the tires were spinning uselessly in the mire.

     “Shit! Shit! Shit!” Mike swore quietly, dropping his head back and closing his eyes.

     “We’re stuck because of the mud, aren’t we?” El asked quietly.

     “Yeah, and I don’t think I can get us out.”

     “Well I can,” El said, looking determined.

     “I don’t know, El.” Mike studied the girl next to him feeling fearful. Part of the deal Hopper had struck with the government stipulated that El couldn’t use her powers outside of the lab. He knew that she often broke that part of the agreement, and it worried him constantly. He didn’t want them to have any reason to try and take her back.

     “I’m allowed to use my powers if I’m in mortal peril,” she reminded him. “And if we stay here we’re going to drown.”

    “We’re not going to drown,” he laughed. “But if _you_ think it’s ok…”

     She nodded her head and closed her eyes, and moments later Mike felt the car shudder underneath them. When he glanced out the window it was to find that they were several feet off the ground. Concentrating quietly, El moved the car several feet down the road, a small drop of blood dripping from her nose.

     “Try now,” she said tiredly. Following her instructions Mike pushed tentatively on the gas.

     “Damn!” he exclaimed as the wheels began to spin uselessly once again. “No matter where you move us it’s going to do the same thing. The whole road is washed out.

     “Sorry Mike,” El nearly whispered, her eyes looking heavy.

      Mike ran his hand down her hair and sighed. “No, El that’s not what I meant. You did awesome, it’s just that I’m never going to have you home in time.”

     “Well let’s walk,” she suggested, her eyebrows raised in challenge.

     “It’s pouring and there’s still lightning,” Mike reminded her. “Besides, we’ll get soaked.”

      El shrugged and pushed open the car door. “If you’re with me, the lightning won’t be so bad. And don’t worry, we won’t melt.”

      He watched her step out into the rain and an odd sort of pride filled his chest. She was beautiful and brave and completely crazy. What was she doing with him?

     “El, wait up!” He called, scrambling out into the rain after her. She turned back to him and smiled, the car’s headlights and the rain lending her an ethereal glow. Her hair, rain-darkened to nearly black, was plastered to her head and mascara was running down her cheeks and dripping off her chin in dark streaks, but Mike still couldn't imagine a more beautiful girl.

      “What?” El demanded, caught off guard by his sudden intensity.

       Mike shook his head and tried to act casual. “It’s nothing.”

       He fell into step next to her, and within moments he was just as soaked as she was, but somehow he didn’t mind.

      “What is it?” El asked again, looking mystified.

       Mike shrugged and squinted down at her through the water running into his eyes. “It…It’s just...”

      “What?” El asked, stepping closer to him and pulling him to a stop.

       Mike could feel himself being pulled into her eyes, could feel every part of himself respond to her in a way that was beyond his control. The feeling in his chest had been growing for a while now. Hell, it had been growing from the moment she had assured him in the forest four years ago that she understood him. Since that time he had learned that monsters and evil were real, but looking at El he remembered that magic was real as well.

      “I love you,” he whispered evenly, the certainty of his words filling him with an unexpected calm. El’s tentative hands came up to cup his face gently, her eyes searching his.

      “You do?” she asked her tone awed, looking at him in a way that always made him feel as though maybe he really was more than just a scrawny AV nerd.

      He nodded, staring into her eyes and willing her to understand. After a moment her eyes slid closed, she pushed onto her tiptoes and brought her lips gently to his. His hands found her waist, and drew her closer, feeling altogether warm in spite of the icy rain.

      After a moment they broke apart, their foreheads resting together and their breathing labored.

     “Mike?” she said softly.

     “Yeah?”

     “I think I’ll always like the rain now.”

     He laughed softly and dropped a tender kiss onto her forehead. “We better get walking or The Chief really will kill me.”

     El grabbed his wrist and pulled it up to her eyes. “We have five minutes. Maybe we can still make it?”

     Mike stared at her for a moment before his face split into a grin. “Well we can try!”

     They arrived on the front porch of the Hopper residence four minutes later, breathless, soaked, and, thanks to an unfortunate slip and fall in which Mike took El down with him, covered head to toe in mud. It was their uncontrollable laughter that alerted Hopper to their return.

     “Did we…did we...make it?” El asked around violent giggles.

      Hopper stared at them in shock for a moment before nodding his head. “Yeah, you made it. Jesus, what happened to you two?”

     “Well,” Mike wheezed, trying desperately to get a grip. “Let’s just say I might need a little more practice driving in the rain.”

     With those words they both dissolved into a fresh round of hysterical laughter, and Hopper was forced to wait until the morning to get the full story.


	5. Clothes and Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El gets to do some shopping and Mike and Lucas have a chat.

         December 1984

 

 

         “Ok El,” Joyce began, guiding El into Sears on a cloudy Monday two weeks before Christmas. “You need a lot of clothes, sweetheart, and today is my only day off this week, so we’re going to really have to power through this shopping.”

         “Power through?” El asked quietly.

         “It means we’re going to have to put a lot of effort into getting it done,” Joyce explained kindly, leading her over to the girl’s department. She gestured at the dizzying array of clothes. “See anything you like?”

          El opened and closed her mouth several times, unsure what to say. She had never seen so many beautiful clothes in her life. For the year that Hopper had hidden her, she had worn whatever odds and ends he had managed to scrounge up. Since she had been allowed to come out of hiding, she had been alternating between Nancy’s scant hand-me-downs, and random articles of clothes pilfered by her from Mike and Will. To have her pick of such an abundance of clothing was overwhelming.

          “There’s a lot here,” Joyce said sympathetically. “How about we start with essentials? You’re going to need panties and,” she gave her a quick once-over with her eyes. “And you’re going to need some training bras."

          “Training bras?” El squinted at Joyce.

           “Yes,” Joyce answered, exposing one of the shoulder straps to her own bra. “It’s like this, but for young girls like you. Because you’re, well, starting to develop.”

           “Develop?”

           Joyce blushed a little and motioned at her own chest. “Yes, sweetheart. Develop.”

            El’s eyes grew wide and she nodded, finally understanding. Joyce helped her to pick out several packages of cotton underwear, some with stripes and others with pink and blue flowers, and El felt herself growing excited. She had never owned anything so pretty in her life. Next, they selected three plain, white training bras. Knowing that she needed them made El feel an odd mixture of embarrassment and pride.

            After selecting several pairs of tights, and three packages of thick winter socks, it was time to pick out clothing, and she was still completely baffled about where to begin.

            “Well let’s start with color. What’s you favorite color?” Joyce asked patiently.

            “Light blue. And pink. Purple. Green.” After years of wearing nothing but white hospital gowns, El couldn’t seem to choose just one.

            Joyce laughed. “Ok. Why don’t you just start grabbing things you like? Remember, it’s cold so try to pick things that will keep you warm.”

           El began combing the racks, and quickly made her first find. It was a pale blue cardigan with delicate silver snowflakes embroidered all over it. She held it up shyly to Joyce.

            “You have a good eye, sweetheart. It’s beautiful!”

            An hour later they approached the register bearing more clothes then El thought she’d ever be able to wear. It wasn’t until the cashier began ringing everything up that El got nervous. She wasn’t entirely sure how money worked, but El did know that you had to exchange it for whatever you wanted. Having lived with Hop and spent a lot of time with Joyce over the past several weeks, she also knew that money didn’t seem to come easy. From what she could tell, both Joyce and Hop had to be away from home quite often in order to make money, and it still didn’t seem that they thought they had enough.

            “Joyce,” she whispered, pulling at her arm as the older woman laid her pile of clothes on the counter.

            “Yeah, honey?” She asked, distracted by her task.

            “I…I’m sorry. I don’t have money. We should put these back.”

            “Hmm?” She asked distractedly, hefting the bundle from El’s arms and setting it down with the rest.

            El could feel her cheeks reddening. “Money,” she said softly, gesturing at the pile of clothes. “Too much.”

            “Oh El,” Joyce said, finally understanding the young girl’s concerns. She put gentle fingers under El’s chin and lifted it so that she could look her in the eye. “It’s not your job to worry about money, ok? Hop and I, we’re going to always make sure you have what you need. Please trust me. Besides,” she said, nudging her playfully. “We can’t have you going to school in Mike’s Star Trek shirt and Will’s ratty sweats!”

            El smiled at that and relaxed, even after the cashier read the total, and even after everything was crammed into five bags.

            When they got home she immediately took her new clothes to her room and carefully unpacked them. She took her time putting everything away just right, and then opened her closet and her drawers several times just to admire the pretty fabrics and patterns.

            “Mom said you guys had a pretty successful shopping trip,” Will said, leaning against her open door. Will, Joyce, and Jonathan were often over, and it was not unusual for them to even stay over a few nights a week.

            “Yes,” El nodded. “Look.” She pulled him into the room, and opened her closet to reveal the neatly hung clothes.

            “Nice,” Will smiled appreciatively. “You can show off a little tonight, if you want. Mike called while you were gone. His parents want to reward him for having straight As, so we’re all going to the arcade downtown.”

            “Show off?” El asked, unfamiliar with the phrase.

            Will nodded. “Yeah, you know. Wear some of your new clothes. You gotta be kinda excited after having nothing but hand-me-downs and boy clothes for the last few weeks.”

            “Show off,” El repeated, trying the phrase out.

            “Well if you want to go to the arcade, Jonathan said he’d take us over at four.”

            After Will had left to draw in front of the TV, El stood in front of her closet feeling ridiculously giddy. She remembered how good it felt to look pretty when the boys had given her a makeover more than a year ago. She wondered if she’d be able to make herself look pretty again.

 

            “Ha! High score!” Mike cried excitedly while Dustin groaned beside him.

            “Damn it! It took me two years to set that record!”

            Mike tried not to smile too big. “Sorry buddy. Will you be giving me your X-Men 76 tonight, or…?

            “You’re actually going to hold me to that bet, Wheeler?” Dustin demanded. “Isn’t it enough that you broke my record?”

            “When will you learn?” Lucas asked, shaking his head. “Between Mike, Will, and I, you’re not going to have any comic books left.”

            “Speaking of Will, where are he and El?”

           “Ask and you shall receive,” Dustin smiled, gesturing at the door where Will stood with a small, pretty girl at his side. He had grown so used to seeing El in baggy t-shirts and sweats that it took Mike several moments to realize the pretty girl standing next to Will was El.

            “Over here,” Dustin bellowed, waving his arms above his head so that they could be seen in the crowded room. Christmas break was quickly approaching, and the small arcade was bursting at the seams with kids reveling in the excitement of the approaching holiday.

            “Hey,” Will greeted with a grin. “Sorry we’re late. Jonathan wouldn’t get off the phone.”

            “El Hey,” Mike greeted, flustered. He shook his head as his cheeks turned bright red. “I mean Hey, El.”

            “Hello,” El said with a smile and small dip to her head. She wore a deep purple sweater with light jeans, and a silver headband that held her long bangs back from her face. Although he knew he was staring like a creep, Mike couldn’t seem to pull his eyes away from her.

            “Way to make us all look like slobs, Ellie,” Dustin said, slinging an arm around her shoulders, causing Mike to envy his ease.

            “Like you need help looking like a slob,” Lucas jabbed, causing Will to snort.

            “You’re just pissed that I beat you at Pong,” Dustin fired back. “Come on, El,” he said, pulling her away in the direction of a recently abandoned Pac Man game. “You’d better let me teach you how to play this _right_.”

            Laughing, Will went with them.

            “He just wants someone he can beat,” Lucas said, smiling over at Mike. When all his friend did was smile weakly in return, Lucas becomes concerned. “What’s up, Mike? You look sick.”

           “Nothing,” Mike said a little too quickly to be convincing.   “I’m just, uh, kinda worried about my Trig grade, you know? I’m not sure how I did on that test today.”

            “Bullshit,” Lucas said, his face shrewd. “You were just fine until Will and El got here.” He took a step closer and lowered his voice. “Is this about El?”

            Mike blushed and became suddenly interested in his shoes. They were well into eighth grade now, and they had all begun to openly admire girls (well all of them except Will) but this felt different. El wasn’t just a pretty girl they passed in the halls. She was so much more.

            “If it makes you feel any better, we all know you like her,” Lucas said, cutting into his thoughts.

            This wasn’t news to Mike, but it was still a relief to have it out in the open. “It’s just that, I like her a lot. A lot-a lot.”

            Lucas grinned. “No shit, Mike. Sorry man, but you’re pretty obvious.”

            “I…I kissed her,” he confessed quietly, Lucas leaning in to make out his words over the noise of the arcade.

            “What?! When?” Lucas demanded loudly, causing several people to look over at them, and Mike to shoot him a death-glare. “Sorry,” Lucas muttered. “But when?”

            “In the cafeteria. Before the demogorgon.”

            “You kissed her a year ago and you’re just now telling me?” Lucas demanded, pushing Mike over to a quieter corner near the concession stand.

            “Well after she…disappeared…it was really hard to talk about,” Mike explained apologetically.

            “I can’t believe you kissed a girl,” Lucas grinned, accepting Mike’s explanation. “And El of all girls! What was it like?”

            Mike thought about it a moment. “It was…like a roller coaster,” he explained. “Terrifying and awesome all at the same time.”

            Lucas, still smiling like a Cheshire cat, made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a scoff.

           “But now I don’t know…I don’t know. What if she doesn’t remember the kiss? What if she doesn’t remember that I told her I like her?”

            “You could always just ask her,” Lucas suggested practically.

            “It’s been too crazy lately.   I mean, she just got back a few weeks ago. Don’t you think she’s overwhelmed enough?”

            “I think you’re chicken,” Lucas said, although the statement was softened by his smile. “But it’s your call.”

            “Maybe I’ll give it a few more days,” Mike said nonchalantly. “Wait for the right moment.”

            “Just don’t wait too long,” Lucas advised, gesturing at the Pac Man game, where a boy who Mike recognized as one of the previous year’s eighth graders, was shyly attempting to talk to El. Although the boy was obviously doing his best to draw her into a conversation, El was mostly communicating with nods, darting glances, and blushes.

            “Is that Robbie Baylor?” Mike asked, the name coming out of his mouth like a swear word.

            Lucas nodded while eyeing the boy up and down. “Yeah. What a douche.”

            At that moment a loud cheer went up from the small crowd gathered around the game. Dustin raised his arms victoriously and whooped loudly, before wrapping one arm around Will’s neck, and the other around El’s, bringing them in close in a double headlock, and effectively ending Robbie Baylor’s attempts at being friendly with El.

            Mike had never been more grateful to his boisterous friend.

            “Did you see that?” he demanded as he approached Mike and Lucas, dragging a laughing El and Will along with him. “I am the PacMan master!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I love hearing your thoughts and ideas. (:


	6. Radians and Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El is a genius (; and she and Lucas stargaze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to get in some El and Lucas bonding. I feel like Lucas gets a bad rap for his cynicism towards El in the beginning. I would like to believe that they would have become good friends after her return, and that he would have been fiercely loyal to, and protective of El.
> 
> PS. The formatting is a little wonky. *Shrugs* Sorry.

October 1985

           

            “I’m telling you, man. You’re supposed to convert the radians into degrees first.”

            “I know that Dustin, but the equation isn’t working out,” Mike snapped, his face flushed in exasperation. It was a Thursday night, and they were holed-up in the Wheeler’s basement, trying to prepare for Friday’s trigonometry test. The first semester of their Freshmen year was in full-swing, and all four boys were determined to score another term of straight As. A resolution being tested by their shared Trigonometry class.

            “Ok, let’s try this again,” Lucas said, erasing the battered blackboard they had set up in the basement for that reason. “Two pie ‘r’ over ‘r’-”

            “H-hang on,” El said timidly from her place on the couch where she had been quietly reading The Hobbit. Ever since her return she had been gorging herself on every book she could get her hands on. In the lab she had only been exposed to encyclopedias and scientific journals, and had never known that such fantastical stories even existed. Now, she couldn’t get enough of the books the boys always seemed so eager for her to read. She passed most Saturdays curled up on the couch, her nose buried in a book while the boys staged their campaigns.

The boys watched her curiously as she walked over to the board and hesitantly took the chalk from Lucas’ hand. “There are three-hundred-and-sixty degrees in a circle. So…w-what if instead of writing two pie ‘r’, why…why not just write one ‘c’ equals 180 degrees over pie…” She continued on until she had written the equation out neatly.

            All four boys stared silently at the blackboard, each more shocked than the next.

            “Holy shit,” Dustin swore, after nearly a solid minute of stunned quiet.

            “You know how to do Trigonometry?” Lucas demanded, his tone less than flattering

            El raised her chin slightly, feeling defensive. “Pa… _they_ taught me. In the bad place.” she informed them, her voice shrinking to a whisper under their scrutiny.

            It had been a year since Joyce, Karen, and Hopper had sat the boys down and explained that El was, in fact, alive. A year since Hopper had deemed it ‘safe’ for her to come out of where he had been hiding her deep in the woods. They had come to know her a lot better since then, and though she had started high school with them just three months earlier, and though her intelligence was obvious, the depth of her formal education still occasionally caught them off guard. Especially when she struggled with basic concepts such as four quarters equaled one dollar.

            “Why aren’t you in Trig with us?” Will asked gently.

            El shrugged, and wrapped her arms around herself self-consciously. “Hopper wanted me to start slow so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed.”

            “Well you obviously aren’t falling behind,” Dustin said, gesturing at her equation.

            “It’s just so weird,” Lucas said as though confronting a particularly difficult puzzle. “They taught you ridiculously complicated equations, but they didn’t teach you how to tie your shoes or ride a bike?”

            “And you never got to read The Lord of the Rings, or C.S. Lewis, or even Judy Blume? Girls love that shit!” Dustin added, dumbfounded.

            “Not all girls, idiot,” Max corrected from the corner where she was grudgingly working on her own homework. Her teasing smile softened her harsh words.

            “I was only talking about girls who know how to read,” Dustin fired back.

            “Papa…he brought me books to read, but not stories,” El said, interrupting their banter. “They were usually books about math, or science. A lot about…what I can do… how to become stronger…focus…concentration,” she swallowed and looked down at her fingers. “And I was never given shoes, ” she added quietly, smirking at Lucas.

            Dropping heavily back onto the couch, she flopped her head back and closed her eyes. She wanted to tell her friends the truth, but remembering Papa and her time at the lab always made her feel so tired.

            Suddenly the cushion beside her sagged, and she opened her eyes to find Mike gazing at her affectionately, his warm eyes a talisman to the bad memories. “You would think by now we would know not to underestimate you,” he said softly.

            “So let me get this straight,” Dustin said, budding into their moment. “Not only do you have superpowers, but you can also convert radians into degrees?”

            “And degrees into radians,” El said, joking wearily.

            Dustin turned to Mike solemnly. “If you don’t marry her, you’re an idiot.”

            Both Mike and Eleven blushed to the roots of their hair, while the boys and Max laughed loudly at their expense.

 

* * *

 

February 1986

 

     “See that one there? Do you know what that one is?”

     Eleven cocked her head to the side and studied the stars through squinted eyes. “Andromeda?” she asked uncertainly after a moment.

     “Exactly!” Lucas exclaimed, causing El’s face to split into a grin.

     He had been more than a little excited when he discovered that El shared his enthusiasm for astronomy. She knew the constellations and movements of the stars almost as well as he did, and, unlike the guys, her eyes didn't glaze over when he described, in detail, what he had learned about solar flares.

     “Are those the Seven Sisters?” she asked breathlessly, pointing to a clump of stars just visible over the horizon.

     “The Pleiades, yeah.” Lucas nodded, giving El an approving smile. “You’re pretty good considering you’ve only ever seen pictures.”

     El’s smile grew impossibly larger under the praise.

     The boys and El had all been hanging out at Lucas’, keeping him company because his parents had gone out to celebrate their anniversary. They had been debating what movie to watch, with Lucas pushing hard for a Carl Sagan documentary he had just managed to get his hands on. El’s eyes had lit up at the mention of Carl Sagan, having devoured several of his books when she was still imprisoned in the lab. That had led to a conversation of all things space-related, which the others had enthusiastically participated in…at first. After forty-five minutes, when Lucas and El were still discussing how time is measured in different parts of space, the boys abandoned the conversation in favor of watching The Poltergeist.

     While the TV glowed behind them, Lucas happily dug out all of the astronomy books he had managed to collect over the years, and he and El spent the next hour going through them at the kitchen table. As they flipped through the pages, El quietly let it slip that she had only ever studied the stars in theory, and had never been given an opportunity to actually stargaze, a problem that Lucas was determined to remedy immediately.

     “We’re going to check out the stars,” he called to the other boys as he pulled El through the front door, pushing her coat into her hands.

     He had just enough time to hear Dustin holler something about “how romantic,” and the beginning of Mike’s objection, before the door slammed shut.

     “Idiots,” he muttered to himself as he led El to the middle of his driveway. The Winter night was dark and clear, and above them the stars shone like an ocean of brilliant diamonds.

     They climbed onto the hood of Lucas’ dad’s truck and leaned, side by side, against the windshield, craning their necks to see the clear, velvety sky.

     “Wow,” El said, breathing fog into the cold air.

     “I know,” Lucas said softly. “Is this really the first time you’re seeing them? In person, I mean?”

     “I’ve seen them,” El said, quietly. “A few times, through the windows at…at the bad place. And then after we were mad at each other…when I slept in the woods…but it was pretty cold, and I…I didn’t really pay attention.”

     Lucas’ stomach squirmed uncomfortably with guilt. “Yeah, I’m…I’m sorry about that El,” he said quietly. “I wish I could take that fight back. I was an-“

     “No Lucas,” she said cutting him off and speaking more firmly than he had ever heard her. “It’s all over. We’re friends now. Right?”

     He smiled up at the stars. “Yeah, El. We’re friends. Definitely.”

     They were quiet for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts as they gazed up at the heavens.

     “See that one there?” Lucas said, pointing out the big dipper. “That’s Ursa Major.”

     They spent the next twenty minutes finding all of the constellations that were visible. Although she knew the names of the constellations, she didn’t know the Greek myths behind them, so Lucas happily filled her in.

     “That one’s moving,” El said suddenly, pointing at the sky, her voice a mixture of bewilderment and fear.

     Lucas followed her pointed finger and found what indeed appeared to be a tiny star moving across the darkened sky. “It’s a satellite,” he explained calmly. “Did _they_ ever teach you about satellites?”

     “A little,” she said, and he could hear the relief in her voice. “But I didn’t know that they looked like stars.”

     “Sometimes my dad and I will come out at night, lay right here, and see who can spot the most satellites. He usually wins. Wanna try?”

     El smiled up at the stars and nodded. “Yes.”

     When the other boys called them in a short time later, Lucas had spotted four satellites, and El had only seen one.

     “The more you look for them, the easier it is to spot them,” Lucas, ever the gracious winner, said as they walked through the front door. El smiled and nodded in response. “Hey!” He said, suddenly enthusiastic. “Since these boneheads didn’t want to watch the documentary, wanna come over tomorrow and watch it?”

     “Yes,” El said, her smile growing even larger. She might have lost the satellite-spotting game, but Lucas inviting her over again made her feel as though she had won all the same.

 


	7. Sorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El finds out about her mother.  
> ***Trigger warning-Brief mention of implied suicide.***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Trigger warning-Brief mention of implied suicide. Be well, darlings.***
> 
> Part one of two.

April 1987

 

 

          El had never given much thought to her parents or family before the lab. As far back as she could remember, Papa had been her only parent, and her feelings about him were so twisted and gnarled with anxiety, regret, and fear that she did her best to avoid any and all memories of him. After fleeing Papa, El had found herself in the unwilling care of Jim Hopper. In the beginning he had been aloof and shrewd, meeting her needs and caring for her, while simultaneously giving her the impression that he didn’t care for her at all. He had frightened her. Intimidated her. In those days, when she was too weak to stand much less run, she had dreamed of slipping away from his quiet irritation, and seeking out Mike, who would surely welcome her home with open arms. By the time she had regained enough strength to put her daydreaming into action, something had changed. She could never say when exactly the change came about, but sometime during her long incapacitation, Jim Hopper had transformed from captor and nurse, to guardian, to friend, to simply Hop.

            Perhaps it was that she came to understand him better, or perhaps his demeanor really did improve. In reality, El thought it was probably a little of both. All she knew for certain was that when he had finally declared it safe for her to rejoin the rest of the world, El could not imagine living with anyone but the imposing (and ridiculously soft-hearted) police chief.

            Her blissful ignorance regarding her familial roots all changed at the end of Tenth Grade when Mrs. Daniels assigned the entire Sophomore class with the task of creating a detailed family tree. They were to include parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all in an attempt to illustrate the groundbreaking science of genetics.

           As Mrs. Daniels explained the assignment in detail, El felt a knot of worry begin to form in her stomach. Seeming to sense her distress, Mike nudged her gently.

          “El?” he whispered, his dark eyes worried.

_I can’t do this assignment_ , she wrote hastily on the corner of her notepad. She met his eyes and grimaced.

_Yes you can_ , he scribbled back. _Just use Hop’s family_. _He’s your dad now, right?_

         El had returned Mike’s reassuring smile, but the assignment had introduced questions she hadn’t thought to ask before. Who were her biological parents? Were they still alive? Did they know about her?

         That night as she sat at the dinner table with her little family, Hopper noticed her preoccupation.

         “Something on your mind, Ellie?” he asked, never one for beating-around-the-bush.

         El sighed as she pushed her spaghetti around restlessly. “We have to make a family tree for Biology,” she said.

        Hopper met Joyce’s eye across the table. “Well that’s fine, honey,” Joyce assured her. “I’m sure Hopper can give you all the info you need on his family.”

        El smiled wistfully. “Ok. Thanks.”

       “Was there anything else?” Hop asked, when she continued to mostly play with her food instead of eating it, a dead give away that something was wrong.

        She chewed her lip for a moment before meeting his eye. “Everyone has a mom, right?” She asked, feeling ridiculously childish.

       “Yes,” Hopper answered, dread growing in his chest.

       “And everyone has a dad?”

       “Yes.”

       “Even me?”

        Hopper looked into the wide, brown eyes in front of him and wanted to run. To hide. He had known this day would come, and yet he still had no idea what to say, or how to say it. Guilt wormed its way into his gut and he shifted uncomfortably. Perhaps he should have told her sooner. Maybe it would have been better if she had known the truth from the beginning.

       When the silence in the room stretched to an uncomfortable length, Will kicked Hopper’s foot under the table, forcing him to make a decision. She was old enough now, and she deserved to know the truth.

       “Yes, El,” he said finally, meeting her eyes with a steady gaze. “Even you.”

       “Do…do you know…Who? Are they…do they want to know…about me?”

       Listening to El’s language skills tumble back to where they were two years ago almost broke him. Almost made him assure her that he had no idea who her parents were, that he had never discovered any information on either of them.

       But he couldn’t lie. Jim Hopper might be a lot of things, but he wasn’t a coward.

      “Uh Will, why don’t you finish your spaghetti out on the porch?” Joyce suggested, her face etched with worry.

      Will quickly glanced around the table, feeling the tension slowly rise and thicken around him. With a nod he hurriedly gathered his plate and fled through the sliding glass door to the tranquility of the back porch.

      “So…” Hopper spoke into the terrible silence. “You…you were asking?”

       El nodded and took a deep breath, seeming to gather her thoughts. “Do you know who…my mom? My dad?”

       Hopper’s eyes once again sought out Joyce’s, and the slight nod she gave him was all the reassurance he needed. “I don’t know anything about your father. There’s no information on him at all.” he said. “But I met your mom once.”

       El tried to process Hop’s words, but her brain felt sluggish, as though it were being smothered by the enormity of the information.

      “Who?” The word came from her lips as a breathless whisper.

      “Terry Yves,” Hopper said the name with an odd sort of reverence.

      “I met her too,” Joyce finally spoke up, grasping El’s hand. “We went to see her when Will was missing. When we were trying to figure everything out. She…she was lovely, El. Just like you. You have her nose…and her chin.”

      An image of a woman who looked remarkably like herself burst into El’s mind unbidden, causing a sweet sort of ache in her heart.

     “Does she know…about me?” she asked, her voice breaking on the last word. “Does she know what I can do?”

      El’s heart slammed against her ribcage and the sound of it’s beating filled her ears. If her mother didn’t know she existed, then maybe… _maybe_ …they could be reunited. El knew she didn’t want to move away, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t get to know her mom, did it? But if she did know about El, and simply didn’t want her…

     “Ellie,” Hopper began, taking the hand Joyce wasn’t gripping. “Your mom wasn’t well. When we met her, she had already been sick for years.”

     “Did…did she have the flu?” El asked, referencing the only illness she had ever been struck with.

     “No sweetheart,” Hopper said gently. “Her sickness was…it was different.”

     “She was heartsick,” Joyce supplied, her mouth turned down.

     “Brenner,” Hopper said, hating the way El still winced at his name, and hating the man in once belonged to even more. “Brenner took you away from your mom as soon as you were born. He stole you. They told her that…that you had died.”

      El felt her stomach drop. Papa took her away from her mother? He _stole_ her?

     “Your mom never got over it,” Joyce added, her voice tremulous. “She knew that you were out there somewhere, but no one believed her. Everyone just thought she was…”

     “Crazy,” Hopper finished grimly. “But she was right. She was right all along.”

      El was trembling and her stomach felt as though it had turned to water. Her mother was sick, sick because El had been taken from her?

     “Does…does she know that I’m here with you?”

     Hopper stared at her for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever, his eyes unfathomable. “Your mom died, Ellie,” he said at last. “She…she took some pills, went to sleep, and…she didn’t wake up again.”

     It was like a punch to the gut that sucked all of the wind from her lungs. She couldn’t catch her breath and she couldn’t hear past the roaring in her ears. She had a mother. She had a mother. _She had a mother!_

 

            _Had_.

 

     El shook her head, fighting against the terrible, suffocating feeling building in her chest. She had never _had_ anything. Brenner had made certain of that. It didn’t make sense to be sad. Terry Yves was just a stranger. An idea. A daydream.

     But she had been her mother-a mother that she would never know.

     Without another word, El shoved back from the table and ran. It didn’t matter that she was barefoot, or that it was nearly dark, she just had to get away. Away from Hopper’s torn gaze and Joyce’s pitying stare. Away from the confused longing that seemed to bleed from her heart, filling her with a crushing sorrow. She moved her legs as fast as they would go, running from the overwhelming reminder that she wasn’t normal, that her life would always be marked by Brenner and everything he had taken from her.

     She didn’t hear Hopper and Joyce desperately calling after her, but if she had, she wouldn’t have stopped anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued...
> 
> Thank you to everyone for the kudos. Please leave comments as well...they're so motivating! Plus, I love to hear what you think!


	8. Sorrow, Pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which El receives terrible news about her birth mother, and Mike is the sweetest boyfriend in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy busy holidays! I'm sorry it's been so long, but I've literally been in 7 cities in the last three weeks. I've been wrestling with this chapter a lot, and although I'm still not entirely satisfied with it, I think it's time to put it to rest. So I'm sorry for the delay, but I hope you enjoy!

April 1987

 

     Mike tapped his pen against his desk and tried to focus on his Chem homework, but like a compass needle drawn north, his eyes were drawn back to the framed picture in front of him. It had been taken over the summer, one balmy night when The Chief had had to work late and his adopted daughter and her friends had all been left to their own devices at his house.

    The gang had all gone over with the intention of keeping El company while her surrogate father worked, and had decided on a whim to take a swim in the lake. For the boys, swimming had meant simply stripping off their shirts and diving in, but El and Max had disappeared into the house and had come out five minutes later wearing proper swimsuits, and the sight of El in the modest one-piece had done funny things to Mike’s heart rate…especially when she had looked at him shyly and blushed scarlet.

     After several hours of swimming they had all lounged out on the back porch in the fading sunlight, sipping on Dr. Pepper (Mike never let a can of Coke within fifty feet of El), and munching on potato chips. He still grew warm thinking about the way she had curled into his side and rested her cool, damp head against his shoulder. He had wrapped his arm around her waist and drawn her a little closer, ignoring the wiggling eyebrows of Dustin and Lucas, and did his best to play it cool in spite of his heart nearly pounding through his ribcage. It wasn’t that he had never held El before, but her effect on him never seemed to wear off. That, and they were slowly becoming more open about their relationship in front of their friends. Jonathan, who had stopped by to check on them, had snapped the picture just minutes later, preserving the memory of that perfect summer evening forever.

    Studying it now, Mike felt a familiar swoop in his stomach. El was all sun-bleached hair, and smooth, tan skin wrapped in red lycra. He was certain that she had no idea how beautiful she really was, or the effect she had on the opposite sex. On more than one occasion he had noticed other boys in the hall taking her in, their eyes roving over her in a way that made Mike feel uncomfortably anxious and possessive. Far from the skinny, angular girl that he had first met that rainy November night, she had filled out in a way that was undeniably feminine, though she remained small and lithe.

   “Michael?”

   His jiggling door and his mother’s voice from the other side snapped him out of his lovesick musings.

   “Michael, open this door right this moment,” his mother demanded firmly.

   “What?” He demanded, swinging his door open and instinctively responding to her attitude with one of his own.

   His mother looked around his room suspiciously, standing on tiptoe to see over his shoulder. “Michael, if El is in here you should just say so now.”

   “El? What are you talking about? I haven’t seen her in hours.”

   “You’re not lying to me?” Karen Wheeler asked, her eyes narrowed.

   “What? No! Why? What’s going on?”

   Karen sighed and leaned against Mike’s doorframe, suddenly looking worried. She peered at him cautiously and held up her hands as though to calm a spooked animal. “El’s gone,” she admitted. “Hopper and Joyce had to give her some bad news, and she just…took off.” she explained. “But Mike-“

   He didn’t give her a chance to finish. Before she could find a way to stop him, he was shoving his feet into his shoes, and taking the stairs three at a time, his heart pumping with dread.

   He wanted to be sick, and for a moment he thought he might be. _Suck it up, Wheeler_ , he thought as he hastily grabbed his coat from the hook by the door. He sprinted to the carport where he momentarily considered swiping the car, before he decided on his bike instead and pedaled off into the quickly fading daylight.

   From the moment El had returned to him, this had been his greatest fear. Not another monster, not more bad men, and not even the possibility of being pulled into another dimension. What he had dreaded and feared the most was El once again disappearing to a place where he could not reach her.

   Mike pedaled as hard and as fast as he could, his mind whirling with all the places she might be. The library had become something of a draw for her, but at this hour it would already be closed. He decided that he would check Castle Byers first, then make his way along the train tracks to the quarry.

   Though he fought against it, his mind kept bringing him back to the moment when, four years ago, she had seemed to dissolve into ash in front of his eyes. The days that followed had been some of the darkest of his young life. Not only had he been crushed by the grief of losing the girl who suddenly seemed to own his every thought, but he had also been consumed by overwhelming guilt. Eleven had counted on him to look out for her, and he had failed spectacularly.

   “El?” He called, jumping off his bike before it had even come to a complete stop. He approached the sturdy little fort where he had made a million childhood memories, and threw aside the curtain that acted as a door. It was empty. Swearing under his breath he ran back to his bike, and sped off once again.

   By the time he made it to the quarry, the world had sunk into velvety twilight and the first stars had begun to appear in the indigo sky. Mike squinted his eyes against the gathering darkness, scanning the trees that he and El often sat under to watch the sunset and talk.

  She was there, and the relief that filled Mike was so exquisite that his knees grew weak.

   “El,” he whispered, not wanting to startle her. Her head snapped up in surprise nonetheless, her eyes meeting his and causing a chill to pass through him.

   The spark that had always lived in the depths of her brown-gold eyes was gone. Now they were like once-sparkling diamonds that had been stomped on until they no longer shone.

   “El,” he said again, approaching where she sat on the ground, her knees drawn up to her chest. He wanted to reach down, snatch her up from the leaves and crush her against his chest, but instead he crouched down in front of her and reached tentative fingers out to trace her cheek. “I’m here,” he said softly.

   “I had a mother,” she said without preamble, her voice a quiet rasp. “I had a mother just like you. Joyce said I have her nose…that she was beautiful.”

  “If you look like her, then she’s definitely beautiful,” Mike said with quiet conviction, his heart squeezing painfully. He had never given much thought to Eleven’s parents…had just assumed that they were permanently out of her life. His mind scrambled for the right words to say, for the perfect touch to bring her back to herself.

“Papa stole me from her,” she continued, bringing tear-filled eyes to meet his own. “He stole me, and now…now she’s dead.”

Her voice broke on the last word, and with a great, heaving sob her shocked calm shattered.

Mike pulled her to him, his arms wrapping around her petite frame and squeezing her against him with nearly all of his strength. She buried her face in his neck and sobbed out all of her heartbreak, her fingers clutching at his back as though he were the only thing anchoring her to the ground.

He rocked her in the dirt, whispering every word of love and assurance that came to his mind. She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve any of this. The girl in his arms was everything good and pure in his world, and he wanted to hurt…to _kill_ …that sonofabitch Brenner for finding a way to hurt her once again.

It was completely dark by the time her storm of tears subsided. Mike sat in the dirt and rotting leaves, his back against a large oak tree, with El in his lap. Sometime during her grief, she had straddled him, wrapping both her arms and legs around him in an effort to be as close as possible, and she had yet to move away. Her head rested heavily on his shoulder, and his arms were still wrapped securely around her waist.

He pushed the hair back from her face before dropping a gentle kiss on her forehead. “Whatever happened, whatever’s going to happen, I’m here,” he promised quietly.

She sighed and squeezed him tighter as another tear rolled down her face and off the tip of her nose.

“I love you,” he whispered for what must have been the five-hundredth time that night. “I have since you were just a bald little girl wearing my sweats.”

That drew a breathy sound from her that might have been a laugh, so Mike continued. “Remember that day we went walking through the woods after school when you were trying to help us find Will? You smiled at me and I swear El, I loved you then. I don’t think I understood it, but I know that I felt it.”

She ran her nose across his jaw and sighed, so Mike dropped another kiss on her forehead and kept talking. “Remember our first day of high school last year? You wore that jean skirt and that black sweater-thing? The whole day I couldn’t think of anything else but how beautiful you looked. I even had to go wash my face with cold water after I dropped you off at your first class. I remember thinking that my grades were going to go down the toilet because I’d never be able to concentrate on anything but you.”

“But that didn’t happen,” El whispered thickly, her head still resting on his shoulder. “You still get line-As.”

Mike smiled affectionately against her hair. “Well I can’t let you get _straight_ -As on your own.”

“Mike?” His name was a question on her lips, and she pulled back to look at him with brown eyes still wet with tears.

“Yeah?” he asked, bringing a hand to cup her face gently, his thumb brushing just under her bottom lip.

“I’m…I’m so sad,” se whispered, closing her eyes and leaning into his touch. Tears streamed out from under her eyelashes and splashed onto his hand.

He kissed her nose, her cheeks, and then her lips before pulling her close once again. “I know, El. It really sucks. I’m so sorry.”

“Is it weird?” she asked, her face snuggled into his neck once more. “To be sad about someone I never met.”

“No,” he reassured her, stroking the hair back from her pale cheeks. “It’s…it’s more than just losing your mom. You lost everything you could have had together. Everything you _should_ have had together.”

El took a deep, tremulous breath, and nodded. “Yes,” she agreed, planting a trembling kiss against the side of his neck. A quiet moment passed before she asked: “Is it like this with everyone?”

“What do you mean?”

“You understand me,” she said, choosing her words slowly, carefully. “You’ve always understood me.”

“I don’t know if it’s like this for everyone,” he admitted, playing with the ends of her long, tangled hair. “But I’m glad it’s like this for us.”

“Me too,” El agreed.

 

“I feel so stupid for not figuring it our sooner,” she confessed, walking along beside Mike toward his bike a little while later, finally feeling calm enough to return home. “When I first went to live with Hop he told me my legal name would be Elle Jane Yves. I just thought it was the name the lab gave him. But tonight he said my mother’s name was Terry Yves.”

“So he gave you her name,” Mike concluded, steadying the bike for her as she climbed on.

El nodded, staring at the ground for a moment before looking up at Mike. “Before tonight, I was thinking about asking Hop to change my name to Hopper. It just…I wanted to _officially_ be his daughter. But now…now I want to stay Yves. I feel like I owe my mom at least that much. Does that make sense?”

Mike nodded. “That makes perfect sense, El.”

She shivered, and he immediately shrugged off his jacket and helped her to slip it on.

“There,” he said, looking down at her, his dark brown eyes serious and full of concern. “Better?’

El smiled slightly and nodded, the sadness in her heart giving way a little to the butterflies he always seemed to inspire in her.

“Mike?” she asked, her eyes fixed on his in the bright moonlight.

“Yeah?” he answered breathlessly, seeming just as hypnotized.

“Why,” she swallowed, looked at the ground nervously, and then back at him. “Why do you love me?” It puzzled her. She was no one from nowhere. When they met she hadn’t had a family, or home…or even a name. She couldn’t help but wonder what it was that drew him.

Mike stared at her in surprise, stunned momentarily into silence. It was bizarre that she would even ask such a question. How could she not know? How could she truly not realize how amazing she was?

“There are lots of reasons,” he said softly. “But…well, you know how I’ve always liked stories like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings?”

El nodded, her large eyes vulnerable.

“Well I think I’ve always liked those kinds of stories because there’s a hero. Someone who has to step up and be brave and strong. Someone who might’ve been weak or scared before, but then they find something to fight for, something that makes them stronger. Luke had The Force, Frodo had the Shire. I was just some dweeb who wrote Dungeons and Dragons campaigns for his friends, and got beat up by bullies…but then I met you.” Mike laughed and tucked El’s hair behind her ear. “You were in my life for two days, and all of sudden I’m standing up to my bullies, running from federal agents, telling men with guns they’ll have to kill me before I’ll let them have you, and fighting real-life monsters…or at least trying to.” He took her hand, and watched his thumb run back and forth across her knuckles, terrified that it was all coming out wrong. “The truth is, I’m still just a skinny dweeb, but when I’m with you I feel like I’m more. You make me stronger and…and _better_. You make me feel like there’s nothing I can’t do.”

Slowly, like watching sparks flicker into small flames, Mike watched as the sparkle returned to El’s eyes.

“You’re not a dweeb to me,” she whispered, jumping clumsily off his bike and wrapping her arms around his waist. She rested her cheek against his chest, and wondered about love, about what it could do. Mike’s love for her made him feel brave. Standing in the dark wrapped in Mike’s arms made her realize that loving Mike made _her_ feel whole. Just hours earlier she had felt as though she had shattered into a thousand pieces, but now, although she still felt cracked she no longer felt broken.

“I love you, Mike.” She whispered against his t-shirt. It was the first time she had ever said those three words to anyone, but she felt the truth of them all the way down to her bones.

“Yeah?” Mike asked, holding her face gently between his hands. El stared into his warm, dark eyes and nodded. He rested his forehead against hers, breathing in her warm, sweet scent and doing his best to commit the moment to memory. “Come on,” he whispered after a moment. “It’s late and I bet Hopper has the whole department out looking for you.”

El smiled slightly at that, and climbed back onto Mike’s bike. When he climbed on in front of her, she wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and rested her head on his back.

“El?” he said gently, his large hands covering her smaller ones.

“Yes?”

“If you ever run away again, will you call me so I can run away with you?”

El snuggled closer into his back and nodded her head. “Promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave comments with your constructive criticism and any ideas you might have! Thank you!!


End file.
